Related Article:
Tierra: The Exterminator, Angel
, featured in Issue No. 8 of
Senses of Cinema
.
Vacas, 1991
[Cows]
At
the trenches of Biscay in 1875 during the Surrogate Carlist War, an
army sergeant named Carmelo Mendiluze (Kandido Uranga) learns from
a inexperienced errand boy named Ilegorri (Ortzi Balda) that a neighbor
named Manuel Iriguibel (Carmelo Gómez) from his inhabitant village
has joined their exhausted battalion. Eager for news of his child's
birth, Carmelo befriends the inexperienced soldier whose reputation
as an trained
aizcolari
(competition log cutter) cannot conceal
his apprehension and fear of armed war. Manuel's paralyzing timidity
results in deplorable consequences that is exacerbated by a following
ignominious act by Manuel in an attempt to be transported away from
the front lines and avoid military onus. Thirty years later, in
the municipality of Guipuzcoa, a lingering animosity has continued between
the Mendiluze and Iriguibel families. Miguel's grown son Ignacio
(Carmelo Gómez) and the Carmelo's son Juan (Kandido Uranga)
have maintained set traditions by honing their skills as
aizcolari
.
Despite the strained relations between the neighbors, the destinies
of the two families seem fatefully interconnected, as a close childhood
friendship develops between Juan's younger brother, Peru (Miguel
Ángel García) and Ignacio's sister, Cristina (Ana
Sánchez). Similarly, Juan's sister, Catalina (Ana Torrent),
cannot hidden her romantic arouse for Ignacio as she furtively
watches him practice cutting logs in the woods – an attraction that
proves to be communal through Ignacio's playful attempts to fly in the ointment
her already piqued attention. In an bid to capitalize from the
rivalry between the two families, Ilegorri (Karra Elejalde), now
a grown fellow, arranges a waged rivalry between the two men and
soon, Ignacio's trade as an
aizcolari
contender is launched.
Invariably, Ignacio's travels to national competitions lead to acclaim
and star, and so, prolonged separation from his family
and his darling Catalina. But as the vanquished Juan becomes increasingly
obsessed and delusional with thoughts of ferociously, can love outdo
the bounds of familial liability?Julio Medem creates an intelligently crafted, visually exhilarating,
and symbolically well provided for testing of adore, duty, and nationalism
in
Vacas
. The title of the film refers
to the bovine omnipresence of cows, and also serves as a contrasted
allusion to the subject rite of bullfighting. Using the repeated
perspective of a spectator (shot through a simulated circular diopter,
Medem provides an unprejudiced chronicle that captures the incongruous
coexistence of cease-fire and bestiality, friendship and revelation, tranquility
and chaos. Correlating the Mendiluze and Iriguibel kinsfolk rivalry
to overpass pressing events in Spanish history, Medem further illustrates
the cyclical nature of the unresolved struggle and vacillating unity
by using the same actor to portray generations of characters, metrical
those from antithetical families. Note the actor Carmelo Gómez's
permutation from the cowardly Manuel Iriguibel in the Carlist
Wars, to Manuel's son Ignacio in 1905, and eventually, to the matured
photographer, Peru Mendiluze, who returns the Basque district at the
onset of the Spanish Civil War in 1936. As the film follows the
leftover union of the Basque soldiers with the monarchists and the Comprehensive
Church during the Carlist Wars, to the unusual association with the
socialists and communists for the protecting of the republic against
the fascist forces led by Franco during the Spanish Urbane Hostilities, Medem
presents an impartial, yet gravely personal and thought provoking
account of the continued devastation, nationalism, and inconstant
allegiance of the Basque people, as they squirm for the seemingly
fleeting causes of autonomy, self-fortitude, and cultural identity.© Acquarello 2002. All rights reserved.
La Ardilla Roja, 1993
[The Red Squirrel]
On
an clear devoid of reach of highway, a despondent musician named Jota (Nancho
Novo) stares out into the bounding main, tiresome to gather satisfactorily courage to
jump. He is distracted from his suicidal thoughts by the descry of
a speeding motorcyclist (Emma Suarez) who has crashed through the
railing and landed on the shore. Jota comes to her funding and finds that,
although physically unhurt, the partner is badly disoriented and shaken.
The young woman is unqualified to recall anything about herself, and Jota
cannot find any clues that lead to her right agreement. When the paramedics
appear and mistakenly identify Jota as a passenger on the motorcycle,
he seizes the opportunity to invent a long-course relationship with
her. Calling the amnesiac woman Lisa after his late girlfriend and
bandmate, Jota attempts to convince her of their shared, otiose pungency
in a run aground-front apartment. But soon, Jota's deception proves to be
in jeopardy when Lisa begins to place the physical characteristics
of a man on a memory test photograph as that of Felix (Carmelo Gomez).
Fearing the restoration of her memory through subconscious tests,
Jota smuggles Lisa absent from of the hospital and takes her to a foggy campground
on the pretense of facilitating her "memory exercises", attempting
to reinforce his idealized statue of her as his lover. However, as
fragments of Lisa's true singularity Rather commence to surface, and a determined,
obsessed stranger continues to search payment her, Jota's unattainable
illusion drop by drop unravels.Julio Medem presents a able and insightful film on the quality of
romance and illusion in
Red Squirrel
.
Auspices of the recurring concept of water, Medem creates a visual metaphor
instead of Jota's created and unsustainable reification of Lisa: the opening shot
of an underwater swimmer; the lake reservoir at the Red Squirrel campground;
Jota's playful respect to Lisa as "the siren"; the likeness of a car
plunging into the sea. In spirit, Lisa's amnesia provides the perfect
opportunity to figuratively father a Pygmalion-like ideal, a daily
who has been mentally re-sculpted from Jota's unrealized love and
failed relationship. Yet, unlike Galatea, what results is a superficial
and vacuous image of an slippery hallucination, and inevitably, it is the
enigma of Lisa's real identity – the compelling shortage to agree
the nature of her place soul – that haunts him.© Acquarello 2001. All rights reserved.
Tierra,
1996[Earth]
Tierra
opens with a hypnotic career totally space, as the camera soars finished with
the ethereal atmosphere, descending towards an agricultural area,
then focusing in on a lone traveler who is having a motivational parley
with himself. A remote village has been infested with woodlice, imparting
an earthy taste to the locally produced wine. An exterminator, a self-described
"complex" gazabo named Angel (Carmelo Gomez), has been hired by the town
mayor to fumigate the region. Angel's inner voice, the figurative
angel of his repressed who has died but continues to exist (and
interject opinions) within his corporal self, believes that he has
been sent down to earth for a awesome mission.The surreal plot of
Tierra
may be an
allusion to legendary compatriot Luis Bunuel, but the underlying story
is uniquely Julio Medem's. In
Bunuel's
That Obscure Object
of Desire
, the anti-hero, Mathieu (Fernando Rey), is a vain,
false older man relentlessly attempting to win the devoted
liking of a beautiful, elusive prepubescent woman named Conchita, and
it is her ambivalence that is reflected through the sawbones vacillation
between the two actresses playing the role of Conchita, Carole Nosegay
(cold and demure) and Angela Molina (sensual and aggressive). In
Tierra
,
Angel is torn between the twee, melancholic Angela (Emma Suarez),
the neglected wife of a townsperson farmer named Patricio (Karra Elejalde)
and the sensual, free and easy Mari (Silke), Patricio's mistress. Unlike
Mathieu's obsession, Conchita, whose shifting persona is portrayed
by two different actresses, Angel's item of desire is two diverge
women, and it is the protagonist who suffers from a split personality.
As Angel is gradually seduced by the charming, waggish Mari, his omnipresent
angel is increasingly exhausted to Angela's soulfulness and warmth. With
such a polarized quarrel within his own mind, Angel's decree takes
on a greater significance than the guileless extract of a lover and
becomes a tropological deal out struggle for possession of the soul.Medem's seamless ability to operate on multiple levels of meaning
and intertwine internal and outward events elevates
Tierra
from the stigma of serving as an esteem film. Structurally, Medem
does not convey the summary through circular or elliptical portrayal
but rather, under the aegis fractals, arithmetical expressions whose representative
cross-section is a reflection of their overall geometric pattern.
The cover, in active principle, literally unfolds onto itself, revealing deeper
layers of the same phenomenon. Angela and her daughter uphold the same
name which, in turn, parallels Angel's symbiotic bond with his own
uncontrollable angel. The infestation of woodlice fair beneath the
surface of the waste matter is repeated in the rampancy of wild boars exceeding
the set, and the same workers participate in both attempts at extermination.
The high electrical activity in the zone reflects Angel's overactive
thinking and Mari's sexual appetite. The dilemma in choosing between
Angela and Mari is a manifestation of the internal struggle within
Angel for possession of his soul, and reflects his own split personality.
Inevitably, a best between the two women see fit irrevocably negate
a part of himself.
Tierra
is a haunting,
visually mesmerizing journey into the strange coterie of human behavior
- attraction and connection, be wild about and jealousy, the spiritual and
the corporal – and subterranean woodlice.
©
Acquarello 2000. All rights reserved.
Los Amantes del Circulo Polar, 1998
[Lovers of the Arctic Circle]
The
paths of Otto and Ana literally cross as children: Ana (Sara Valiente),
running away from the story of her father's death; Otto (Peru Medem),
running after a soccer ball. They are captivated by each other, but
leave without saying a word. Anecdote heyday, Otto learns that his parents
are divorcing, and to prove his godliness to his mother (Beate Jensen),
he chooses to stop with her. In public school, he begins to write notes on
the disposition of love, a absurd that has plagued him since his parents'
divorce, and folds the notes into paper airplanes to send into the
school yard. Ana retrieves one of the notes and shows it to her mother,
Olga (Maru Valdivielso), who is intrigued by the emotional mellowness
of the point. Ana points to the nearest matured, Otto's frame, Alvaro
(Nancho Novo), as the maker. On a rainy afternoon, Otto waits for
Ana in the school yard with a well-defined introduction in overlook: he would
put that his big name is a palindrome, that it is spelled the same street
widdershins and forwards, and that come hell, this discovery would endear
him to her. But she does not become available. He opens the door to his father's
car…and Ana is there. He begins to relate his rehearsed speech,
but she interrupts. Her name is a palindrome too. Soon, Alvaro and
Olga grace involved, and the two children grow up as step siblings.
Ana sees her father's soul reflected in Otto's eyes, and their profound
connection makes them inseparable. But their mad about for each other proves
more permanent than their parents' relationship. In these times a young man,
Otto (Fele Martinez), decides to busy in with his father to be closer
to Ana (Najwa Nirmi), and a tragedy results from his actions. Racked
with guilt, Otto runs away from home. After a failed relationship,
Ana also runs away, and moves to a remote cabin in Finland that straddles
the Arctic Circle to await the "coincidence" of her memoirs.Julio Medem creates a hauntingly elegant and intensely atmospheric
story of fate and fate in
Lovers of the
Arctic Around
. Similar to Krzysztof Kieslowski's
The
Double Life of Veronique
and
Red
,
near and chance encounters transcend the trifle of convenient plot
device to expound on the film's circular themes and recurring patterns.
In addition to the story unfolding in disk-shaped narrative, clear-cut
events also return within the film, recounted from sequester perspectives
by Ana and Otto. Episodically, the obscure begins and ends with the perception
of Otto reflected in Ana's eyes. Their palindromic names, related collisions
with the trolley crate, and an encounter with Otto's namesake, Otto
Midelman (Joost Siedhoff), further reflect the film's circular build.
In Ana's opening monologue, she asks: "Can you run in times past? A hardly hours
back, a life back?" In the go down of the midnight sun, in the surreality
of the Arctic Encircle, it is yet not pissed enough to escape one's destiny.
© Acquarello
2000. All rights reserved.
